Posts: 1-16 of 44

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I couldn't find any post addressing this topic, so if there is one, point me in the direction and I'll delete this.

So lately I've been coming across a lot of music that isn't quite chiptune, but has very similar textural roots. Rather than using the sound pallete of 80s games, it utilizes sampling and soundfonts for a SNES/N64 sound:

I've mostly found it around Ubiktune's folks, as well as those crossbreed chiptune/PC Music artists around Soundcloud (Maxo, bo en, Spazzkid, KKB, etc). I think it's all pretty great stuff, and I'd like to explore this kind of music more myself. But whenever I try introducing friends to these jams, I find myself hesitant to refer to it as chiptune, provided it is very distinct from LSDJ/Famitracker/Nanoloop music.

All of the artists I listed except bo en have at least dabbled in chiptune, and now they're doing stuff like this. I'd like to call it VGM, though none of these songs were composed for actual games (much like chiptune itself). I think there are a lot of similarities and connections between chip and whatever this is, and I don't see talked about much.

What do you guys think? Can this music qualify as chiptune? Is it just "VGM," or is it something altogether different ("post-chip"?)? Would you guys be against somebody posting this music on CMO?

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I might be making a big deal out of something very familiar to a lot of you, but I find this all pretty interesting.

That kind of tracker music that Kfaraday and Fluidvolt create, is in fact "chipmusic"... or the original definition of it.

Let me explain.

Amiga computers had a sound chip called "Paula" back in the mid 80's that was able to multitrack 4 pre-recorded sound samples to play simultaneously. So basically half the sound output as SNES. It is music produced from a specific sound chip with specific limitations.

It was back in those days that the first sample trackers were made for the average computer musician, for the Amiga computers. That's where the .mod file format comes from. Decades later, and there are modern renditions of these old skool trackers that are still capable of producing the same kind of music, and even music that is much more advanced. It was from those old sample trackers where they first started dubbing this style as "chipmusic".

I know that Kfaraday uses OpenMPT for sure. It is one of the modern sampler trackers that descended from that era. It is free to download as well.

They started calling it "chipmusic" because composers learned how to take a small clipping of a sound sample to make a more simple sound that would theoretically add more variety without using so much RAM and storage space. They took little "chips" of a sound sample to make new sound samples. Hence the term "chip" music.

Music made with the NES, Gameboy, and Sega Genesis can probably be better referred to as "chiptunes". But back in those days, such terminology did not exist. They just said "Nintendo" music, or "Sega" music. As far as I know. If I had time, I would post some resources you could refer to.

Essentially, the Amiga music was used to make "chipmusic" and at the same time it WAS authentic "chiptunes". So I don't have a problem with people calling all of it "chipmusic" or "chiptunes". Call it what you want, but that is the history in a nutshell.

Chip sample tracker modules weren't called chipmusic because they used 'chips' of a bigger sound, it was because the small-form waveforms resembled the sounds from the old SID/AY etc. chips, rather than full samples.

Chip sample tracker modules weren't called chipmusic because they used 'chips' of a bigger sound, it was because the small-form waveforms resembled the sounds from the old SID/AY etc. chips, rather than full samples.

Thank you so much! This seriously clarifies everything a lot. I've even had OpenMPT collecting dust on my desktop for the past year or so, though I never researched it too thoroughly or knew anything about its history. Ha, I should probably get started on reading the documentation and experimenting with it; it really looks like a lot of fun!

VCMG wrote:

FLOOR BABA aka sleepytimejesse calls it gamewave but honestly just call it whatever feels most correct.

I personally use 'post-chip' if I really want to emphasize the chip connections and history but it's all just "soundcloud electronic music" if you remove the historical context

Awesome, thanks! I recognize FLOOR BABA's name from STAFFcirc, but I've never heard of GAMEWAVE. Definitely agree with the "soundcloud electronic music" remark. It often seems that these different styles are blended, and its harder to distinguish one label from another, anyways.

theythem wrote:

Maxo and Nelward have a command over harmony that a lot of other chiptune people like haven't learned enough to be able to do (including me)

I know, right!? I figure the most important thing with them is building harmonies from an already-established melody. I'm in school for audio engineering right now, so I'm taking a lot of related music theory classes, and even with everything I get from that Maxo and nelward still confound me.